Tuesday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 21, 2023

Luke 19, 1-10

At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in the Temple when she was a very young girl.  The basis for this feast is found in the early, apocryphal, Christian document called the Proto-Gospel of James, which gives an account of Mary’s conception, birth, her betrothal to Joseph, and the Birth of her Son.  We honor Mary on this day for her perfect dedication to God in every moment of her life.  There was nor will there ever be a woman like this in our world.  Every thought, word, and act served God, and for her this was the most natural thing in the world.  We ask her prayers that we may receive the grace to serve the Lord in all that we do.

The teaching on The Virtuous Wife in the 31st chapter of The Book of Proverbs helps us to understand the Virgin Mary’s splendor with God and her help of us.  “Who shall find a virtuous wife? far, and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.  The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31, 10-12).  It is as though the angels sang as one: “Where, O God Almighty, where you find a woman from among the sinful human race of such great faith and virtue that  she could serve as the Mother of your most beloved Son?  She would be the most rare of humans, a unique human, one solely devoted to you.”  And then, as though the Lord God showed a vision of Mary to them, and overwhelmed with her spiritual beauty, they cry out, “Your heart, O God will trust in her as in no other for the Mother of your Son, and she will assist him throughout his life in carrying out the work of human redemption.  She will render him heartfelt obedience all the days of her life and will in no-wise hinder him with her own ideas but will subject herself to your will, keeping in the background as your great, good servant.

“She has opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her hands to the poor. She shall not fear for her house in the cold of snow: for all her servants are clothed with double garments. She has made for herself clothing of tapestry: fine linen, and purple, is her covering” (Proverbs 3@, 20-22).  We can think of the angels continue to marvel at this masterpiece of God’s creation: “She who is so lofty above all of her kind yet does not hold back from mixing with the lowest among them, giving aid to those in need, praying for the most abandoned sinners and imploring Almighty God for graces for them so that they might repent.  There is no one whom she will not gladly help.  She assists most of all her servants within her house, the Church.  They are clothed with the ‘double garments’ of faith and good works which she has inspired and for the doing of which she obtained the necessary graces.  She has made for herself clothing of tapestry: she is covered with her own pure faith and holy deeds.  This is made from linen and purple cloth, the linen which covered her Son in his tomb, in whose Sacrifice she shared and which became a sign of his Resurrection; and of purple cloth, signifying her nobility, her blessedness, for all generations to come until the end of the world shall call her blessed.”

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass is the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector who yearned to see Jesus.  At the end of the reading, the Lord declares, “Today salvation has come to this house.”  Salvation has come into the house of the world through the Blessed Virgin Mary.  She is, as it were, the door of this house through which the Son of God deigned to enter.  He could have come into the house of this world through its walls as he did when he appeared to the Apostles following the Resurrection but he chose to enter it through the door as all mortal men and women must, and the door through which he came was the Blessed Virgin.  Let us ourselves pass through this humble door which opens itself to us and into the world of eternal light.